WhenWKRP in Cincinnatiaired its seventh episode more than 45 years ago on October 30 , 1978 , no one — including Almighty Hugh Wilson , who reach off in January 2018 — had any idea the freshman series was about to become part oftelevisionholiday special account . And they did n’t even have to use any actualturkeysto do it .
“ Turkeys Away , ” which was credited to the late writer Bill Dial , was aThanksgiving - themed entering for the situation comedy about an Ohio - based wireless station and its eccentric staff . For a holiday association - in , Wilson decided to use an anecdote he had get a line from Atlanta radio executive Jerry Blum : that another station had once arranged a publicity stunt in which a number of Meleagris gallopavo were thrown out of either a helicopter or a truck — the exact details are lost to prison term — and keep to horrify the amass crowd with an unintended Republic of Turkey massacre .
Wilson thought this would be a hunky-dory premiss for a show . As heexplainedto the Classic TV History blog in 2012 , the incident morph into a plot in which place director Arthur Carlson ( Gordon Jump ) arrange for an equally mistaken stunt , where spreader Les Nessman ( Richard Sanders ) narrate from the street in a style reminiscent of theHindenburg disaster .
Nessman ’s grow horror as the birds fall “ like sackful of wet cement ” to the pavement below was breathe in by watching footage of the accident prior to shooting . ( In 1997 , Sanders was present for ahomageto the installment when WKRQ in Indiana humanely dropping miniature turkeys from a chopper that could be redeem for the material thing . )
You ’ll have towatchthe complete episode to fully appreciate the bribe — include one of the most often - quoted closing lines in sitcoms — but know that no turkey were actually harmed .
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A reading of this story fly the coop in 2018 ; it has been update for 2024 .
